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Data centres account for around 7% of Switzerland\u2019s total electricity consumption. <\/p>\n
Keystone \/ Salvatore Di Nolfi <\/p>\n
The impact of data centres on the environment and the climate is hard to measure. The Swiss Datacenter Efficiency Association has recently won international recognition for a tool that assesses the facilities\u2019 footprints.\n<\/p>\n
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April 16, 2026 – 10:00\n<\/p>\n
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\n I cover climate change and energy through reportages, articles, interviews and in-depth reports. I am interested in the impacts of global warming on everyday life and solutions for an emission-free planet.
\nPassionate about travel and discovery, I studied biology and other natural sciences. I have been a journalist for SWI swissinfo.ch for more than 20 years. <\/p>\n
Any activity that uses the internet \u2013 working from home with a computer, paying for dinner with a credit card, or generating an image with artificial intelligence \u2013 relies on data centres. These buildings full of servers host the IT infrastructure needed to process and transmit digital data.<\/p>\n The number of data centres is increasing in Switzerland<\/a> and around the world. As a result, energy consumption and CO\u2082 emissions are growing as well. Data centres use around 7% of Switzerland\u2019s electricity, and this could more than double by 2030. Most of the electricity powering the facilities often comes from fossil fuels, and large amounts of water are required to cool the IT equipment.<\/p>\n >> How does a data centre work?\u00a0<\/p>\n External Content <\/p>\n Despite sustainability commitments across the tech sectorExternal link<\/a>, the real environmental impact of data centres is largely unknown. Various indicators measure the energy used, but they do not reveal how efficiently servers, storage systems, and network devices use that electricity to make our modern internet work. This gap makes it difficult to assess progress towards carbon neutrality in the digital world.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, when discussing data centre sustainability, nobody considers the IT component,\u201d says Matthias Haymoz of the Swiss Datacenter Efficiency Association (SDEA), a consortium of companies and academic institutions formed in 2020 to reduce the environmental and climate impact of data centres. \u201cThis is a problem because today 80% of a data centre\u2019s energy goes into IT.\u201d<\/p>\n The SDEA launched its online navigatorExternal link<\/a> to fill this information gap in 2024. The tool is the first in the world to evaluate a data centre\u2019s entire energy balance, and it recently received an award at one of the leading global events for data centres. The recognition is a sign that while data centres remain essential for our connected world, a growing number of organisations wish they had more transparency about their energy use.<\/p>\n Data centre servers are not used to their capacity<\/p>\n Accessible online, the SDEA navigator measures a data centre\u2019s sustainability based on 12 months of real operational data. It analyses four key aspects: infrastructure energy efficiency, IT utilisation efficiency, CO\u2082 emissions, and water consumption \u2013 providing a complete assessment of a centre\u2019s environmental impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n >> We explained how the Swiss navigator works at the time of its launch:<\/p>\n \n More<\/p>\n More <\/p>\n Climate solutions\n <\/p>\n A Swiss label wants to make data centres greener <\/p>\n This content was published on <\/p>\n Jul 16, 2024 <\/p>\n Every time we book a hotel online, stream a movie or make a video call, data centres worldwide consume a lot of energy and water. A label launched in Switzerland wants to reduce the centres\u2019 energy impact. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read more: A Swiss label wants to make data centres greener The tool is supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. It can be used \u2013 for a fee \u2013 by companies offering space and infrastructure in their data centres, as well as by clients who own their IT equipment.<\/p>\n Around 30 users, mostly in Europe, have registered since the calculator\u2019s launch in July 2024, Haymoz says. According to him, the largest potential for improvement lies not with data centres themselves but with their customers (banks, public administrations, SMEs, etc.).<\/p>\n In a modern and efficient data centre, most of the energy is consumed by IT systems, which are the responsibility of customers, Haymoz notes. \u201cToday, according to IBM estimatesExternal link<\/a>, a server is used at an average of 12\u201318% of its capacity, even though it could safely be increased to 80%.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n This means that most servers stay powered on and consume significant energy while doing relatively little work. To put it simply, it\u2019s like leaving the television switched on without watching it.<\/p>\n In large companies, Haymoz continues, thousands of servers remain underutilised \u2013 and no one notices because sustainability teams and IT departments often don\u2019t communicate with each other. \u201cYet optimising IT infrastructure could represent a significant source of savings: less energy consumed, fewer licences, less software,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Switzerland is among the countries with the highest density of data centres in the world (pictured is a facility in canton Aargau). <\/p>\n Keystone \/ Christian Beutler <\/p>\n An award for helping to make data centres greener<\/p>\n Data Centre World in London \u2013 the world\u2019s largest annual event dedicated to the data centres industry \u2013 recognisedExternal link<\/a> the SDEA calculator for its \u201cspecial contribution\u201d to improving energy efficiency. The award was presented on March 4 by an independent panel of experts.<\/p>\n The SDEA tool scored highly in every category, explains John Booth, director of the consultancy Carbon3IT and a member of the jury. It was recognised for enabling more environmentally responsible operations and producing clear, measurable results on energy efficiency of data centres.<\/p>\n \u201cThe use of this tool provides a \u2018baseline\u2019 of evidence,\u201d Booth wrote in an email to Swissinfo. The next step, he added, could be to implement recommendations from the European Union\u2019s Code of Conduct for the energy efficiency of data centres, a voluntary initiative that encourages operators to adopt sustainable practices.<\/p>\n According to Matthias Haymoz, the international recognition of the SDEA calculator \u201cshows that the sector is moving away from isolated indicators towards comprehensive metrics, and from sustainability pledges to verified standards.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Digital Realty \u2013 one of the world\u2019s largest data centre operators \u2013 used the Swiss calculator for all three of its facilities in Glattbrugg, near Zurich. \u201cWe wanted to strengthen transparency around how we measure and communicate our sustainability performance,\u201d Carlos Alves, Digital Realty\u2019s Capacity & Energy Manager, told Swissinfo.<\/p>\n The company already had an internal system for monitoring key performance indicators. The added value of the SDEA calculator, Alves explains, was providing an external point of reference and a more standardised way to interpret differences across facilities. \u201cThis is increasingly important, as customers look for measurable and independently verified indicators.\u201d<\/p>\n
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